HERE Drive Beta updated, adds mysterious improvements

Nokia has rolled out an update today for both HERE Drive Beta apps on the Windows Phone Store. Not only can Lumia owners rejoice at their turn-by-turn navigation solution being bumped to 2.2.2156.8, but so can all Windows Phone consumers since Nokia has a second version of its popular and well rated app for all other OEM smartphones on the Windows Phone Store. So what's new in the latest release?

We're not entirely sure, if we're honest. There's no updated changelog available (since we last looked at HERE Drive Beta just last month), but we imagine there to be minor improvements included. If you happen to notice anything new we've overlooked be sure to hit us up in the comments.

I use car charger with 1A power output. Its charging my 920 nicely. I did once tried charging 920 to USB port in the car audio player. It drains faster with GPS on, but manage to charge with audio bluetooth turned on

The Car Dealer/repair stuff was there before in Map Layers I believe.. The battery icon seems new. Thought it was related to the 'battery saver' in settings but it isn't....so the main battery guage I guess.
Here's a list of 'what's new' from the WP8 Store d/l page...
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- Sync favorite places with other HERE apps and here.com
- Additional customization options to tailor your driving expwerience to fit your needs

Hi guys, this is Pino from the HERE team at Nokia.
This version of HERE Drive+ fixes some minor bugs, that's all for this time.
The 'map features' someone mentioned, were introduced during the last update 2 weeks ago.

Please tell us the next update includes a list view of upcoming turns and spoken/written display of destination address at end of routing (for when you are driving somewhere that doesn't have a huge sign out in front if it).

Thanks for your feedback we will look into it. In the meantime there is a workaround: open HERE Maps, select the destination with long tap on the map, calculate the route by car, select "start navigation" to launch HERE Drive.

when do you plan to fix the fact that the only voice guidance that works is the one that is the same as system language? i have l920 on english uk and i cannot use Greek voice guidance. only the english uk one

thats whats i try to explain you. i have downloaded greek voice language. i also downloaded deutsch one to test if the problem was on greek language pack. The only downloaded language that works is the english uk with street names. if i change system language to Greek, then the Greek voice guidance works fine. It seems that voice guidance language has to be the same with system language in order to work.

Oh, that's an odd behavior then... It works for me: my smartphone is in US English but I use navigation also in German and Italian.
I guess you are not only downloading the voice but also activating it in HERE Drive settings > navigation voice, right? It must be selected.
Otherwise I really don't know what's going on.

Thanks for your info Pino. Can you tell us when can we use our "collection" that we create in Here websites? I'd like to create custom routes for my trip. Bte since the purpose of here maps is to get as many users as possible from any platform, why not make "report new Road" feature like in Waze. This way, every single user get to participate in the map update.

Currently collections aren't available in HERE for Windows Phone 8, but soon you will see more alignment between the way you collect places on here.com and on your smartphone.
Also thanks for the feedback about "report new road", we are actually looking into a larger community based approach.

And is it possible to make Here Maps the 'default' maps app? For instance, if I search for a local business and click on its address, it takes me to Bing Maps. I'd like to be taken to Here Maps directly. I know I can scroll right to the 'apps' tab and select Here Maps, but that's extra steps. Another example is if I go to my contacts list and select a contact (whose address I have stored), and then click on the address, I am taken to Bing Maps. The only way to look that address up in Here Maps or navigate to that address using Here Drive is by copy-pasting that address in those respective apps. Quite annoying tbh. Or is it not possible to make Here Maps the 'default' maps app due to WP8 limitations?

And is it possible to make Here Maps the 'default' maps app? For instance, if I search for a local business and click on its address, it takes me to Bing Maps.

It doesn't take you to Bing Maps, that's still Nokia Maps, just with Microsoft's native interface. Nokia Maps is built into WP8. The Nokia Maps app (or HERE Maps as it's called now) is just an alternative UI to access the already built-in maps. Personally I do not like Nokia's interface at all, and I could write at length about why. I'm very pleased that there's an app on the Store called "Maps" which gives Nokia users the ability to launch the built-it maps interface directly. No waiting. I say it gives Nokia users the ability, because other WPs come with the real maps app already available. Nokia take it off.

Furthermore, if you type maps.bing.com in IE10 (set to open pages in mobile format), it will redirect you to the app-like-version of Bing Maps. IMO, it wouldn't redirect you to the Here Maps app, because that's not what I 'wanted' to use.

PS: I've already reported the incorrect pinning of San Diego International Airport to Bing via their feedback option on the desktop version of their website.

Never mind. :) haikus' comment below did confirm what you said. So, they are the same maps but just different interface. I wonder if I should also notify Nokia/Here Maps about the incorrect pinning of the airport when I search via WP8 search (I already notified Bing).

We're cool if you are not that into HERE Maps, but may we know why? It would help us improve the experience.
Anyway, we believe that HERE Maps is a strong and compelling product with syncronized favorites with here.come and all the other HERE experiences. You get turn-by-turn walk navigation, transit info with the option to get more with HERE Transit, venue maps in 29,000 buildings in 45 countries and soon also augmented reality with LiveSight.

You gotta reduce the number of clicks to get from Here Maps search to Here Maps nav.
- Open Here Maps
- Search for something
- Click on it on map (right here should be an option to navigate)
- On "about" screen, click "get directions"
- Scroll down to "Directions", click on "start navigation"
- When Drive opens, click "Start"

We see it differently. If you already know you're going to get there by car, why don't you directly open HERE Drive and search for your destination there?
Also, you can save places you visit often as favorites and you can also pin them to start for one-tap access. Windows Phone 8 is such a great OS for this, make the most out of it.

We have seen during user tests that this is what most poeple want. However, if a map overview is very important to you when searching for some places, you can always tap on the little squared map next to each search result. From there you can see, on a map, where all those search results are.

Wow, this is great! I am learning a lot of hidden features of Drive. Never knew that clicking on that little squared map next to each search result would open a map where 'all those search results' would be pinned. There should be a tips/turorial section where all these helpful features are described. Would be a time saver.

I didn't know about that square. I just looked at it and the way you scroll sideways to show the different results is very nice. I'll start going into Drive directly instead of entering via Maps. Thank you for taking the time to come to this site and corresponding with the end users.

aah, never realized I could search for 'places' in Drive. Always thought I would need to have an actual address to search via Drive. Thanks for that protip :) Now I can skip searching for places in Maps and then going to Drive to navigate!

Not exactly, but a bug free experience is likely it. I used it for an hour long trip yesterday and it simply stopped navigating several times. I had to use Nokia maps to get the gps to lock again, then go back into drive and re-input my route... That happened several times

A bit if clarification.
Windows Phone maps, just like Bing, Yahoo!, Amazon and others use maps provided by HERE. They can personalize UI elements and some other behaviors like search and POI database.

We are also working with the Windows Phone team to allow e.g. the People Hub to open HERE Maps.

HERE Maps and HERE Drive are two separate experiences designed to address specific use cases. If you're commuting by car, for instance, you want to start navigation with a tap, you don't want to go through a jungle of menus and options.
However, they work together so you can plan a route in HERE Maps and start HERE Drive from there, etc,

As long as it cannot give directions through the hands free bluetooth system in my car, it is not a turn by turn solution for anything. It remains a bad joke on my 822. Locally stored maps and a pretty screen mean nothng if I have to either disconnect from the bluetooth system or pick up the phone and look at a screen while driving. I still consider this to be a poor excuse for alpha software.....

I have the 920 connected to the car audio through bluetooth. I can stream music, have turn by turn and pick up Phone call with no problem. One minor issue is when the turn by turn speak, the music is off. I'd like to have the music plat continuously with but with small volume

All I know is that Nokia Here/Drive works again. For the past 2 weeks, I wasn't able to pass the Here start up screen on my Nokia 810. It closed and kicked me back to the home screen. I'm one happy camper after this update!

Although this feature isn't available on HERE Drive, you can always get a route overview on the map, before start driving. Additionally, you can plan your route first with HERE Maps, get the directions list and then start HERE Drive.

thats not a complete solution. If you start driving towards your destination, but take a detour on the way, there's no way to see the new route list. I really hope future update will have this feature. It is really helpful. Thanks!

What I would like is a change to the Bluetooh Implemntation. Right now the BT stack it uses is the same as music streaming, which means
A-Your car has to support music audio (as opposed to phone)
B-Music does not pause when directions are spoken.
C-Car must have bluetooth selected for audio input to hear anything.
I hope this changes and uses the phone stack. This would allow me to listen to the radio and then have the phone tell me directions when necessary. Just like how text messages work on Windows Phone via bluetooth.

this this this this this! I always have my phone connected to my car's bluetooth and it's mostly a hands-free, no-fuss set up for calls, texts, voice commands... but then when it comes to navigating... it's completely different and I can't listen to the radio at the same time if I wanted to. I've resorted to disconnecting bluetooth when I want navigation and using the phone's speaker...

I must be honest and admit HTC 8X is the coolest phone around. Yes, it beat Lumia design-wise, but Nokia's GPS/Maps make my life much easier. I feel completely comfortable to go wherever, and that's why I upgraded from Lumia 800 to Lumia 820.

Hi everyone, Pino again from the HERE team at Nokia.
One more thing: we're very please that you are all so passionate about HERE Drive and you have so many suggestions. Of course we are listening and we are considering your feedback for next releases. We are always working on all HERE experiences and soon you will be enjoying more features. Right now we are very busy at removing that beta lable asap.

Well I updated my App, and guess what? All of my remaining free space, over 5Gb worth, GONE! deleted the App, and its still full. Ran the memory shrink program that worked in the past, and got a couple of hundred Mb back. I already had disabled the automatic uploading. Cleaned out every cache and deleted some more apps to get to a barely functional half a Gb.
MS had better solve this memory bug asap!

Has anyone else had this memory-eating problem with the HERE updates? I haven't updated yet, and I can't afford to use an additional 5GB on my 8x. That would wipe me out. I wonder if uninstalling first and then downloading fresh would avoid the problem.

Here's is what i will tell you this works off-line at 35.000 feet i was flying from Rio to IAH Taxas and i was able to track my location and speed of the flight during the flight. The phone was in airplane mode with no inflight wifi and this thing really works try it out the next time you guys fly i'm using a lumia 810.